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HB 980 North Carolina House · 2025-2026 Session

Remove Barriers to Employment from Court Debt.

HB 980 removes barriers to employment by ending North Carolina's practice of suspending driver's licenses for unpaid traffic-related fines, fees, or court appearances. It automatically reinstates licenses suspended under these rules without requiring action from the person, waives associated fees, and requires the DMV to notify affected individuals. The bill also mandates data collection on suspended licenses (disaggregated by race, gender, and zip code) and forgives fines for past "Driving While License Revoked" convictions tied to these suspensions. This directly affects North Carolinians whose licenses were suspended solely for unpaid traffic debts or non-appearance, restoring their ability to drive for work or daily needs.
Issues: ✓ Criminal JusticeSupports Criminal JusticeRemoves license suspensions for unpaid traffic fines, reducing employment barriers and addressing systemic disparities in court debt enforcement, aligning with criminal justice reform goals.95% confidence
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Apr 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Apr 10, 2025 Last action Apr 14, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Filed → Edition 1 · 4 edits
MODERATE
This bill removes barriers to employment caused by court debt by allowing automatic reinstatement of suspended driver's licenses and waiving associated fees. The changes include formatting updates to the bill header and footer, while the core policy provisions regarding license reinstatement, fee waivers, and data collection requirements remain substantively unchanged.
TECHNICAL

Updated bill header information including session date, bill number, and document identifier from DRH40509-NEfa-16 to H980-v-1

Changed sponsor information section to direct readers to the North Carolina General Assembly website for a complete list of sponsors rather than listing them directly

Updated referral information to include additional committees (Appropriations, Finance, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House) with a new date of April 14, 2025

Adjusted line numbering and formatting throughout the document to reflect the new edition version

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
3
Key actions
0
Committee
1
Apr 14, 2025
Committee
Ref to the Com on Appropriations, if favorable, Finance, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
lower
Apr 10, 2025
Introduced
Filed
lower
0 primary · 11 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.